Issue nr 344
Monday, April 21st 2025
Past Issues : https://www.oxford-chiltern-bus-page.co.uk/
From the Editor
A busy Easter weekend but much of interest for readers in this issue.
First a surprise demonstrator arrives at Oxford Bus and has seen service with the 46.
Within the Go Ahead Oxford group renumbering is proceeding at pace.
We visit Cornwall, Dorset, Southampton, Romsey, Salisbury, Swindon, Bath and Edinburgh with contributors
In this issue
LBM Brooklands in photos
Bourne End and Maidenhead with Gavin Francis
Grahame Wareham remembers 344
Yorkshire visited by Jack Cooper
Rail Replacement at Amersham by Derek Taylor
Buses in the Landscape
Coach visitors to Oxfordshire
Fleet News & Developments
News regarding the Oxford tube coaches
London Operations by Andrew Webb Adrian Small
Readers visit to other areas
London Bus Museum – A
living heritage
Spring event at Brooklands by Tony Bungay
As the title says, I attended the annual London
Bus Museum spring event. Despite the forecast, the day was mainly
sunny and dry, although as some of the photos show the rain did make an
appearance!
I did try to spot out the rain spots that unfortunately appeared on some photos, but with mixed results.
The event had a range of vehicles from the very
early days through to the latest all electric ones. Though as seems to
be the trend of recent years, the number of visiting vehicles has
lessened.
Stagecoach provided a single deck Enviro in the latest livery, echoing
the thought of another of your contributors,
the livery looks fine when fully washed, but the slightest heavy shower
will quickly leave a film of road dirt on it.
A picture of the RF and XF.
A nice and interesting selection of entries. Ed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And another contribution from Danny Chan
Different photographers choose differing subjects and locations. Ed.
Bourne End and Maidenhead
on
14th
April 2025
For
the past week the railway line between Maidenhead and Marlow has been
closed for line maintenance work. There has been a Rail Replacement Bus
Service in place so I decided to go and see what was operating it and
take the opportunity to catch up on some local bus changes.
The first thing I noticed was GB Railfreight 66713 parked in Bourne End
Station, not too often you see one of those there.
There were 3 coaches operating the RR Service, Imperial Coaches BW24UDY
a Volvo EvoTor,
YCH Coaches of Wokingham BV19YGA a Tourismo and Angel Motors AE71AET a
King Long.
I took the opportunity to get some local bus pictures, the most
surprising being
Carousel 614 from their Heathrow service operating the 36
along with MMC 80478 and also Volvo/Wright 80823 on the 37 arriving from
the recently extended route to Windsor.
I then moved onto Frascati Way in Maidenhead to get some pictures of the
new services which Carousel now operate. Considering that until July
last year they were not seen in the area they are now the dominate bus
operator.
I am aware that last week’s page showed pictures from Peter Edgar from
the same spot
so I have selected pictures that did not duplicate either the buses or
route combinations that Peter’s showed.
Reading Buses still run services through the town as shown by 129, 668
branded for Foundation Park,
665, 673 still in Courteney Buses livery, 192 and 663
Life produces continuing changes and interest. Ed.
Grahame
Wareham with O&CBP
Issue 344
H344 MWL978 1948
AEC Regent II with Weymann H30/26R body, renumbered H878 in 1952.
Withdrawn in March 1960 and sold to PVD (dealer) Dunchurch. It initially
passed to Crump of Pinner, joining H877, in June 1960 It was resold to
Reliance of Newbury in June 1963 as their no.86 and received platform
doors making it H30/26RD. It lasted until October 1968 when it was
withdrawn and scrapped, being missed out on a preservation attempt by a
couple of weeks!
344 344TJO
1964 AEC Renown 3B3RA with Park Royal H39/27F lowheight
forward entrance body. 344 was allocated to Cowley Road Garage and
initially operated on 3 road Kinston Road to Rose Hill until that route
became OMO in 1968. It then alternated between 1 & 2 roads being
withdrawn in August 1976. It was not one of the OMO conversions and was
sold for scrap to Paul Sykes Organisation of Barnsley where it was
passed on to A.Barraclough of Carlton in August 1976 to meet its final
demise along with 343, 346 and 347 of the same batch.
Yorkshire visited by Jack Cooper in March 2025
Jack visited Yorkshire recently and provides us wiith an interesting variety of pictures showing the buses and liveries in use.
Charging Point in Harrogate/
ARRIVA
CONNEXIONS
EAST YORKSHIRE
FIRST
STAGECOACH
TRANSDEV
A very interesting piece. Ed.
Rail Replacement at Amersham with Derek Taylor
A few pictures from today's RR to Amersham.
The Stagecoach 54282 from Northampton garage will be a frequent visitor
in the weeks ahead.
David Ive
First Wessex, Dorset, & South Somerset Enviro 400
in "Wessex" livery
climbs up to Portland Heights on route 1 from Weymouth to
Portland.
York with Jack Cooper
Coach visitors to Oxfordshire
James Freeman
James caught up with some passing coaches at the M40 services on April 13th.
Fleet News and developments
Tony Bungay
Bus section of UK Rail Forum states that Arriva have lost the contract to provide Leighton Buzzard Town Services from beginning of June apparently.
Gavin Francis
Not one of the usual allocation for the 275, 404
seen in Chinnor on April 16th.
Neil Gow
Here’s a picture taken on Easter Saturday of 80514 (514) in Boyn Hill Avenue, Maidenhead on Carousel’s new local service 3. Country branded 513 and 514 are the regular vehicles for the 127 but as it was a Saturday when Thames Valley still run the 127, 514 found its way onto locals instead.
I’ve also included a picture of a longer standing Carousel operation in Wycombe, the staff shuttle SS3 service which doesn’t publicise the name of the company it runs for or track on Bustimes. It’s been running for 18 months or so and I finally got to picture it on 1st April with Sprinter 978 doing the honours.
Nigel Peach
I'm surprised that these newly repainted buses are still 452 and 453, rather
than 80452 and 80453.
It was a case of being in the right place at the right time on 17th April. I
was standing in the grounds of St Peter's Church, Station Road, Loudwater
when 452 appeared on the 37 on its first day back repainted into Carousel
Country livery. As I got ready to take the picture, 453 appeared from the
other direction!
Sa
An interesting selection taken in High Wycombe on April 17th.
Bob Chalmers
This bus seems to have had a mixed few months to the start of the year. It was on X3 duty on 30th of December (2024) when it was apparently involved in a accident mid afternoon on the way to Barton. Was out if service for over 2 months but got a new 2 tone red livery, returning to service in mid March - for 8 days. On 24th of March it was on an early morning X1 service to Oxford but only got as far as Marcham - and then out of service again for 3 weeks!!
But it's back now with its new 5 digit running number - taken in Abingdon
High Street on an X15 service to Witney
on Thursday afternoon 17th of April - still looking very smart.
Isaac Alexander
756 working the 15 on April 16th.
Sa
An interesting surprise on April 20th was 80499, a
Yutong E9L, a Demonstrator EV.YE74VGO
For details :
E9L - Pelican
Sanjay Baker
Approaching the Rail Station back out for the first time since February
with a new fleet number 80299 April 18th.
Andrew SimmondsVery few buses have, as yet, been renumbered. Ed.
including Courtney, Newbury & District &
Thames Valley
Kevin Fuller
Just three photos from me this week -
A couple of Reading Buses 'Lion' route 4
(Reading to Bracknell), taken in Wokingham
on 13th April. 246 heads to
Reading with a 4A, whilst 248 is Bracknell bound.
Also on 13th April, Thames Valley 664 Enviro 200MMC pauses at Burnham
Garibaldi with a Sunday route 12 working to Slough.
This bus displays a new
livery/branding for route 2.
Christopher Davidson
A
photo at Tring Tesco of the final Red Eagle wed. only 199 working linking
Tring to Chesham on 2nd April This service was not passed to Carousel with
the other Chesham local routes. Sorry about the low sunshine affecting the
shot. The blind had not been set for the return trip to Chesham.
Tony Gaze
On other matters
Hertfordshire County Council Intalink website shows Red Eagle Services
500/X500 and 560 Aylesbury to Hemel Hempstead Services.
Tony Bungay
A source states, whether this is correct I do not know, is Red Rose is going to run a service to Leighton Buzzard. If so this will be a second attempt as they provided a short lived one before.
Tony Gaze
Two of the Park & Ride's
are out (11747/48), and the other (11749) having had its' vinyls applied.
15354 and 37244 in Slate Blue.
Andrew Churchill
Finally arriving today 15/04/25 is EV80046
(SK74BDY) which at some stage will be reregistered to a 25 plate.
Grahame Wareham
Stagecoach Oxford's newest E400EV 80055 is out on 2's today so feel free to use these pics if you need to. Taken in Mill Street and High Street Kidlington.
Sa
80055 working the 600 in Bonn Square 1on April 16th.
Peter Edgar
Stagecoach South 10630
at Chichester Bus Station promoting the Coast Liner 700 service.
I think 50454 may have gone for repain into tube livery. Ed.
David Barrow
I was speaking to a Volvo representative at the Blackpool Coach Rally And he said that Stagecoach have ordered some Volvo 9700 DD for the Oxford Tube.
London operations
Andrew Webb
Silvertown
The first brand new cross Thames road link since
The Queen Elizabeth II bridge at Dartford in 1991 opened on 7 April.
Three bus services use the tunnel, two brand new and a third extended, all
with electric vehicles.
Two of the new services are operated by Go Ahead using BYD double deckers. The latest addition to the Superloop network is SL4 linking Canary Wharf with Grove Park.
EBD64 is one of several
branded for the route and is seen crossing Blackheath on 12 April.
Blackheath is also served by route 108 which continues to cross the river by the neighbouring Blackwall Tunnel, which require the use of single decker buses. These are former Red Arrow single deck BYDs with Alexander Dennis bodywork.
SEe14 is a typical
example.
Go Ahead also use BYD double deckers on service 129 which has been extended across the River to Gallions Reach
Which is where EBD99 is headed as it
leaves North Greenwich on 12 April.
The third service is Stagecoach operated SCS between Royal Victoria and Millennium Way. This is exclusively for cyclists with the low floor section kitted out to hold several bikes. Five of these BYD Alexander Dennis buses have been converted and repainted into this distinctive livery which, unusually for a bus on a TfL contract, has no red whatsoever.
64201 is
seen at the dedicated stop in Royal Victoria on 12 April.
Fatal Fury, a Japanese computer game, launches its City of Wolves edition on 24 April. Five New Routemasters have received this wrap to promote the launch.
Transport UK's LT618 shows the offside at Trafalgar Square on
11 April,
with the nearside seen on stablemate LT707 at Waterloo later that
day.
Fashion brand White Fox have renewed their advertising with two more Enviro 400MMCs receiving this pink wrap.
Go
Ahead's EH171 is seen at Vauxhall on 11 April,
whilst the following
day found Stagecoach's 11389 arriving at Stratford bus station.
Top View have wrapped this bus for an 'Easter Bunny Express', claiming to be London's first Easter bus tour.
Although a familiar sight in Oxford, London has only just gained its first batch of the new Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV. Arriva have taken a batch for the SL6 taken over from Go Ahead.
Running only in the peaks 'with the flow' means these buses will have a comparatively easy life on the capital's streets.
EE8 is seen passing
Waterloo on 11 April whilst en route to Russell Square to work an evening
southbound journey.
Italian operator Airport Bus Express have recently lost the rights to run into Stansted Airport, being replaced by Flibco. Headquartered in Luxembourg, the company specipTalise in airport bus services, with the new route joining services in Belgium, Germany and Italy.
Their British partner is Coach Travel Group who are
using a batch of Higher bodied Scanias
including this example,
Flibco YN25XLE, seen at
Liverpool Street on 10 April
A company using allover wraps for the first time is Dyson, to advertise their 'Wash G1' cleaner designed for hard floors.
Go Ahead's LT854
shows the offside at London Bridge whilst Transport UK's LT768 displays the
nearside at Waterloo. Both taken on 15 April.
BB Bakery's RM191 carries branding to mark 10
years of operation. It is seen rounding Marble Arch on 19 April.
Ikea are opening a new flagship store at Oxford Circus on 1 May.
Go
Ahead's LT860 has been wrapped as a giant Frakta bag to promote the
opening. It is seen on Old Kent Road on 19 April.
Adrian Small
A quick visit to London
Arriva London EE5 (SK25 BBE) - Alexander Dennis E40EV on route SL6 to
West Croydon, seen near Waterloo Station.
Arriva London EE10 (SK25 BBE) - Alexander
Dennis E40EV on route SL6 to West Croydon, also seen near Waterloo Station.
David Ive
It would seem that First Bus are replacing their
many local identities with a single corporate identity of purple and silver.
I was in Cornwall and Dorset recently, where there are several of these
various local identities, so took some photos in case they disappear soon.
Some of these images are attached so that you may put them on the OCBP if
considered to be of interest. A couple may be suitable for "Buses in the
Landscape".
First Kernow MMCs 33450 and 33452, seen in
Falmouth,
represent 50% of the vehicles in "Copper" livery in the Kernow
fleet.
First Wessex, Dorset, & South Somerset Enviro 400
33707 in Jurassic Coaster livery
climbs Abbotsbury Hill on the last X53
journey of the day, which terminates in the village of Uplyme.
First Kernow have withdrawn all open top services in Cornwall for this
Summer. One of their former vehicles,
36100, still in "Coaster" livery, but
with "Atlantic" removed is seen in Weymouth on route 11 to Portland Bill.
Adrian Small
Local
Area - Southampton, Poole, Romsey & Salisbury
Go South Coast have
some new E400MMC in service in differing liveries
Bluestar 1807 (HJ25 BYL) - Seen in Southampton on route 9 arriving from
Langley.
Bluestar 1805 (HJ25 BYH) - Seen in Southampton on route 4 arriving from Romsey.
Damory - 1793 (HJ25 BYO) - Seen on Poole in Morebus livery on route X9
arriving from Blandford.
Salisbury Reds 1809 (HJ25 BYR) - Seen in Romsey on route X7R arriving
from Salisbury on its way to Southampton.
Salisbury Reds have also painted the solitary Damory E400MMC into livery
from the Excelsior version.
Salisbury Reds 11 (HF70 CUW) - Seen in Salisbury arriving on route X4
from Larkhill.
For comparison the originally livery is shown - 11 (HF70 CUW) - Seen in Coombe Bissett in April 2021 on route 20 from Blandford to Salisbury.
Bath
Faresaver YY25 JAU - Alexander Dennis E400MMC, seen in Bath on route 231
arriving from Chippenham.
1
First West of England have Alexander Dennis E10EV demonstrator on loan
for evaluation, seen in Bath not in service.
Swindon
Stagecoach West 10984 (SN18 KUR) - Alexander Dennis E400MMC,
seen in
Swindon on route 7 to Highworth. This is one of the first to be painted in
the new Stagecoach corporate livery.
Swindon's Buses 1277 (BX09 PGK) - Alexander Dennis E40D - seen in
Swindon on cross town route 5, originally West Midlands 4819.
First Hampshire and Dorset have put into service the four converted Electric
StreetDecks, one attached:
First Hampshire & Dorset 71001 (CMZ 5301) - Seen in Fareham on route 21 from Hillhead. This bus was originally 35152 (SN65 OKD) originally with First Leicester.
Gordon Scott
Taken at Drum Brae
Edinburgh New for
Seen on 900